Freedom house
In its latest annual report on global freedom, subtitled “Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy,” the non-governmental organization Freedom House has ranked Serbia 16th in the world among the countries which have demonstrated a dramatic drop in freedoms over the past decade, the Voice of America reported on March 9.
According to the 2023 Freedom in the World report, Serbia is “a parliamentary democracy with competitive multiparty elections, but in recent years the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on independent media, the political opposition, and civil society organizations.”
The year 2022 saw many infringements upon the freedom of assembly, the report states, “including the forcible repression of activist gatherings and protests by private security agencies and masked individuals allegedly linked to the government.”
Furthermore, while key freedoms were respected during the pre-election campaign period, Freedom House noted “disproportionately high media access afforded to pro-government parties” coupled with “pressure on public sector employees and minority and socio-economically at-risk residents, particularly the Romany population” to support the incumbents’ re-election.
Campaign period violations also included the use of parallel voter lists “to track voters” during the poll, the NGO reported, adding that “vote buying was also reported.”
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